Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Re: Limit switch issues

« on: December 28, 2015, 12:28:06 PM »

Enabled the limits, after I asked and he told me that they were, even though they were not.

I know I shouldn't feed the trolls but show me by quoting my post where I said specifically in answer to you that the limit switches were enabled? I went to the 4th page and couldn't see where I answered YOU about limit switches.....

Furthermore, I really didn't care about limiting the travel of my axis, I was more concerned about homing....

Even after enabling the switches, as the HELPFUL user Stew pointed out, I still had issues with them going the wrong way and grinding into the limits...

If the two of you want to rag on about how much of YOUR time I wasted, no one forced you to read these posts....you could have skipped out 14.5 pages ago....I think ger21 just likes to prove to people how superior he is.....

You see, I have thanked those who helped me work out the issues, and personally thanked stew for his  help in a personal message....if you don't want to help, then don't...

2

General Mach Discussion / Re: Limit switch issues

« on: December 28, 2015, 12:13:06 PM »

Hi Mike,

So what exactly is it that you have done to cure the problem ??

Tweakie.

enabled the limit switches, configured them correctly, enabled the home switches and configured them correctly, move the Y homing switch to the logical location, reversed the homing of the x axis so it moves in the right direction, enabled the z axis limit switch, enabled automatic limit override so I can easily move off the limit switch.....I think that's about it....

3

General Mach Discussion / Re: Limit switch issues

« on: December 28, 2015, 10:36:22 AM »

Hi Dave,
I think these are to individual pins. Parallel is a moot point.

exactly....

4

General Mach Discussion / Re: Limit switch issues

« on: December 28, 2015, 09:40:16 AM »

yeah, that's what I gathered from reading (and partially lol) understanding the manual....

But mine are wired in parallel and N/C.....hence why active low is not checked in the setting box....(I guess lol not 100% on this)...but it works, that's the main thing! :-)

When I re-build, I'll wire up all the switches in series as Stew drew in the wiring diagram....and change the settings....

5

General Mach Discussion / Re: Limit switch issues

« on: December 28, 2015, 09:03:05 AM »

why are you being such a troll? you get off on it or something?

If I understand the terminology correctly, if they were wired normally open, then the setting would need to be active low...since there is always current going through them and they are wired normally closed, active high is the correct setting...

No inverters necessary....

6

General Mach Discussion / Re: Limit switch issues

« on: December 28, 2015, 08:21:55 AM »

Ok, looked through the manual, watched the video on homing and can't find where I tell mach3 to back off from the homing switches by x amount...

Anyone have any ideas?

You don't, this feature is programmed in.
When you have a home/limit switch set correctly and issue a home command on that axis, the axis should move towards that switch at a rate you set on homing/limits, when it hits the switch the switch opens and mach stops movement, reverses and moves away until the switch closes again, thats it as far as i understand things.

When you said earlier your axis was hitting the frame before the switch does seem to indicate a very poor build/design as that should never happen, glad you got that sorted.

As for positioning the work, at switch on I home my table to set machine co-ords to zero on x/y as z is not homed on a plasma. Then I place my material wherever and align the cutter with the corner of it and zero my work co-ords, now my machine knows where its axes end and also where my material lies. In my Cam software I have an image of that sheet and I place the parts to cut exactly where I want them, as the sheet gets used up, I just remove the cut operation from previous parts but leave the part on the sheet so i can see where material has been removed previously.

It sounds long-winded but in reality it means I can use my material more effectively by keeping part-used sheets for smaller jobs and fill in the gaps when needed later, all the sheets are numbered as are the cut files to match, all the jobs are placed relative to the corner of the sheet which i use to set my work zero - 0/0.

I have no idea what cam solution you run but with your fixed strips of wood this method might work nicely for you too probably. I can take a part-used sheet off and reset the entire machine, replace the sheet and continue using it very easily as long as i set the work co-ords accurately.

Yeah, I've done that too, (left a sheet on the table, with the workpiece zero'd in via the offsets and then cut pieces out of it). The main reason I wanted to get the homing sorted it is due to power fluctuations which basically erased my home every time it happened, or losing home when an axis skips a tooth for various reasons, or whenever I lost the offset.

Now that I have a constant set point of reference (home), whenever this happens, I can reset and not muck up my work.....that picture of the sign with the eagle and bear on it, the eagle took about 12 hours of machine time, the bear about 6 and the whole sign total about 20...the whole time a big project like that runs my stomach is (was) in knots praying that nothing went wrong......because I'd have to start all over again from scratch because the eagle's head is now 1/8" offset horizontally and 1/8" vertically because of a power blip....

One thing through this whole exercise: now I feel totally (or at least MORE) comfortable pulling out all the electrics when I replace the mechanicals.....

I will say a great big thanks for those who helped....

7

General Mach Discussion / Re: Limit switch issues

« on: December 28, 2015, 08:07:22 AM »

yeah, they are wired N/C so 5 vdc is constantly going through them so the x'd out column in the active low settings column makes sense now...

but all is well in Denmark....it works....I do blame myself for a lot of these headaches, I had so many issues with the poor design I should have KNOWN to look for the issue first. I can't tell you how many times wiring has been pinched between axis and or ripped out because it got caught on the gantry. I have numerous bungie cords holding things out of the way.....

What kills me is he wrote to me about a year ago trying to sell me a new gantry for $1000 US ($1400 CAN).....I feel like writing him back and say "why would I pay you $1000 to correct flaws in your machine design when I can personally correct ALL the design flaws myself for under $400 CAN?

 

8

General Mach Discussion / Re: Limit switch issues

« on: December 28, 2015, 12:17:08 AM »

Ok, looked through the manual, watched the video on homing and can't find where I tell mach3 to back off from the homing switches by x amount...

Anyone have any ideas?

9

General Mach Discussion / Re: Limit switch issues

« on: December 28, 2015, 12:02:14 AM »

So, what you're saying is, my idea of protesting getting raped by our power provider would work?

My protest would be to organize everyone in town at a given time, to turn on every light, crank up their baseboard heaters, turn on every burner on their stove, crank the oven up to 500 degrees, then go to their break panel, then switch their main breaker off......then 5 mins later flick it on....then 5 minutes later flick it off....

10

General Mach Discussion / Re: Limit switch issues

« on: December 27, 2015, 10:12:25 PM »

Ok, back to CNC....

I followed all the instructions to the letter
Read the documentation from the links provided.
Watched the tutorial (video) on how to set your switches as home/limit

ARRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH X was still grinding.....

So, I said to myself: self? maybe you'll just have to live with it....No, I'm going to keep at it until I figure out what the royal duck is going on. But before I muck about trying to get it set up where I DON'T want Y home to be, I'm going to move the switch to the other end. Not to get into details about that but it took a little while but I got'er done.

Followed the instructions again, step by step, watched the video, paused it after I make the changes....

X axis was STILL grinding...what the (*(*@%^%@^%#^%& is going on? I rechecked the settings watched the videos again, checked, rechecked, checked again,...then WATCHED closely as the axis were moving..........WELL, part of my z axis "head" was hitting the frame before it hit the x switch. So I put at "probe" on the Y axis so that the part that was preventing x from hitting the frame, didn't.....voila everything is working (well, I still have to figure out how to get the axis off the switches after homing them)........

So, remember when I said the company who built my machine really had to be just a nob in a garage? Remember I said he had no real engineering or design experience? How there were many design flaws in my system mecanics? Well I thought, could it be that FROM THE FACTORY, something was hitting the frame when the switch was at the other end?

Sure enough, when I moved everything to the other end, a part of the x axis WAS hitting the frame before the switch so the SWITCH WAS NEVER CONTACTED!